Cursed Bday
by peachy88
Summary: On Gaara's birthday, all kinds of things are happening to him...can his special day be saved from being a total disaster?
1. Chapter 1

**Hi there peoples!**

**Today (19/1) is Gaara's birthday, so here's a little something that popped in my head today. I know it's not my best work (for now), but I promise it'll get better :)**

**I was planning on doing a one-shot and wrapping it all up today, but I didn't have much time to write today, and now it's 3 a.m. here and I'm like in a complete zombie state, so I had to leave it like this. But fear not! I already have the first part of Chapter 2, and I'll finish it and publish it first thing tomorrow. Anywayz, hope you like it, and thanks for reading! XD  
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_Beep beep beep beep_. 7.00 a.m. His hand rose from inside the sheet and turned off the alarm clock.

Just another normal day. Just a day like all the others. Same routine: waking up (given that he slept that night), showering, putting on his heavy and discomfortable robes…Kami, how he preferred his old clothes, much lighter and easier to move in, and of course much cooler, but the damn elders made him use this. "A Kazekage must have proper and elegant attire, significant of his position", they said. Yeah, right…

As all days before this, it was just going to be the most normal/boring of days, filled with endless loads of papers to sign, laws to review, a meeting with the elders to discuss any special event or any unusual occurrences in the village, all the works. Yeah, that was just the right word, the _works_. The boring works of someone who is supposed to be the protector of his village, to zeal for the well-being of his people, and instead is forced to sit day after day in a small, stuffy office, dealing with bureaucracy and papers, like a politician.

To make matters worse, both his brother and his sister were out on missions. Kankuro had gone to a nearby village to capture a missing-nin who had been causing some trouble lately, and Temari was on her way to Konoha because she had received a letter from that lazy Nara guy asking her for help to deal with something concerning the next Chuunin exams. His siblings were the only people who really kept him company instead of just bugging him with papers and trivial stuff.

Yup, just the ordinary day, like all others. But with a slight difference: Gaara turned 17 today.

Yes, it was his birthday, but it was a normal a day as the others, nothing special. He was used to it, of course. He had spent most of his past years alone, making death threats to his siblings (and mostly anyone, for that matter), escaping death at the hand of his own father, behaving as a lunatic and killing people just for pleasure…

But it had changed. He had changed. There was, after all, something different from last years. He was no longer a bloodthirsty madman, and he no longer hosted a destructive psychotic demon inside him.

After the Shukaku had been removed from him, his life had bettered considerably. He now had people who he could call friends, although he didn't see them very often, and he could now count on his brother and sister to help him, advise him on the various things he didn't yet understand, mainly about feelings and thing related to social interaction, and to care for him and provide the affection he never had as a small child (this part was mostly Temari smothering him from time to time and sometimes acting like she was his mother, but he was thankful for having her). And he could sleep now. He still wasn't used to sleeping, and at first he didn't quite grasp the notion of how someone could just "shut off" and be inactive for such a long period of time, but after a few tries he managed to empty his mind and drift into periods of light slumber, and he had to admit it was indeed relaxing.

He finally decided to get out of his bed. He got up and opened the blinds and the curtains on his window and was greeted with a dark grey sky and the heavy patter of raindrops on the window glass.

'Great, it's raining…the one day when it rains in desert had to be today.'

He went into the bathroom, took off his shirt and boxers and stepped into the shower. He tilted his head back so the warm water would fall evenly on his blood red hair. After it was wet, Gaara proceeded to pour his cinnamon-scented shampoo into his hands and spread it across his hair, massaging it. Enjoying the feel of the warm water running down his back, he started thinking about random things, such as what would dinner be that night or if someone would remember that it was his birthday, when suddenly the shower water turned cold. He jumped at the icy feel on his body and turned off the water, waiting a few minutes to see if it would come back warm again…but it didn't. It just came even colder than before.

'This is _not_ happening…' Gaara thought. He quickly rinsed the shampoo from his hair and hurried out of the shower, wrapping himself tightly inside a big fluffy towel. He went back towards his room to get dressed, and shortly after left for the Kazekage building.

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It was almost noon and Gaara hadn't stopped for a minute yet. A huge pile of papers and mission reports had already been waiting for him at his desk when he arrived to his office, and finally he was almost done with all of them. And after that, another meeting with the elders, probably to lecture him again about his attitude or something, or to discuss boring things like the fishing trade deal with the Tea Country.

Not to mention it was still raining. A lot.

As he predicted, no one in the office had remembered his birthday. Not that it mattered, of course, he himself didn't care much about it being his birthday or not, but nonetheless it would be nice if someone remembered…or maybe they didn't know. Anyway, it wasn't that important. He focused on his work so he would finish it quickly and maybe be able to take the afternoon off. As he was picking up all his work from the table and putting the files in order, to put them away, a huge air current came through the office door with such force that the window, which was not totally closed, burst open and all of the documents on the table flew out the window, into the rain. Gaara just stood staring at the open window in absolute disbelief.

'You have _got_ to be kidding me…' he slumped onto his chair and put his head on his palms, leaning his elbows on the table. He took a deep breath. 'I'm calm. I'm calm. I'm calm.' he repeated this mantra, slowly rubbing the kanji on his forehead. This day just couldn't be happening. 'I'm calm. Okay…' he closed the window all the way this time and called his secretary to ask for another copy of all the documents and spent two more hours filling them all again, this time at a surprising speed, seeing as he was already tired of sitting there all morning reading file after file of the most uninteresting topics he could imagine, and wanted desperately to get out of there.

'Oh, right, now there's the meeting with the elders…damn.' he sighed, putting away the documents on his drawer. He got up from his chair, dragging his feet towards the meeting room.

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**So, hope you liked it so far! I know it's not the best ending for a chapter, but ****as I said before it was supposed to be a one-shot and I had to leave it like this for now, but I'll be posting the 2nd part tomorrow (I promise!!). Now please excuse me while I go die temporarily on my bed. *crashes*  
**

**Please R&R, it makes my pet star shine a little brighter! XD**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey there!**

**Please don't kill me!! I know I promised to update on Tuesday, but I've been busy with schoolwork and the likes. I had a really important exam on Thursday and so I didn't have time for anything, including updating both the fanfics I'm currently writing.**

**Moving onwards, here's Part 2**** of my story! Oh, and after long consideration I decided that I'm gonna write some more chapters instead of leaving it short like I intended to in the first place.  
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**Hope you like it! :D  
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"Finally!" Gaara sighed as he left the Kazekage building.

It was almost 5.30 p.m. and he felt like he had wasted half of the afternoon when he could have been doing something interesting instead. But, then again…what was he supposed to do, alone and with that downpour?…If his siblings were around, they could have gone to eat some ice cream or something, or just stay home doing nothing but keeping each other company. Temari would have probably baked him a cake and gotten him a present (which would probably be either socks or a book, his sister's two favorite gifts to give), and Kankuro would have gotten him something mildly embarrassing, like a pair of red silk boxers ("for the ladies, ya know?", he'd say). But today he was all by himself, with no company whatsoever, and subsequently nothing interesting to do, and the damn rain didn't help either, so he decided to head home and just stay there enjoying the peace and quiet. And hopefully his bad luck streak would finally be over.

Then a bird dropping fell right on top of his head.

Gaara sighed. "Nope, didn't end at all…" he just kept on walking home.

When he arrived at his house, he quickly showered again and started preparing to make dinner. He wasn't a great cook, but Temari had pulled him aside one day and taught him the basic knowledge he needed to be able to feed himself. And he enjoyed cooking. He liked to experiment with different combinations of ingredients and flavors, and the idea that a bunch of completely unrelated food items could be turned into something tasty fascinated him. After putting his dinner in the oven he went to the living room and turned on the TV, and finding nothing interesting on, he let it stay on the soap opera channel, in which a young girl was crying and swearing to high heavens that she hadn't cheated on her lover with the evil character.

'Finally a little peace…' Gaara thought, lying down on the sofa. He was feeling tired, after the weird day he had been through. He closed his eyes and let all thoughts abandon his mind…

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Gaara woke up with a jolt. He didn't realize that he had fallen asleep…what time was it? He looked at the old clock on the wall. It was 8.30 p.m.

"I slept for an hour and a half…". And then realization hit him. "Dinner!!" he rushed to the kitchen and saw small strands of dark smoke coming out from inside the oven.

"This is not good…" he opened the oven door and a black could of smoke rose from inside it. What was supposed to be his meal was now a black, shriveled, fuming mass.

"_Why_ is this happening today? Why me?…", he said, covering his nose because of the stench of burnt food that filled the kitchen. He opened the kitchen window so the smell and the smoke would go outside. He sighed deeply and went to the living room to grab his keys and his tanuki-shaped wallet to go buy something to eat.

'Can _anything_ else go wrong today?…' he thought as he got out his front door. The rain had stopped and stars were starting to appear on the darkening blue sky. "Well, at least it's not raining anymore, that's good."

However, the minute he turned the corner, an enormous swarm of squealing fangirls who were anxiously waiting next to his door, probably because they knew it was his birthday, spotted him and started running towards him screaming his name. Some of them had huge bunches of colorful flowers, others had teddy bears and giant stuffed animals, and others simply had cards or just screamed for him.

'Oh crap!' Gaara turned around and ran down the street as fast as he could, not paying attention to where he was going. He turned right at the corner of the main street, then left, then left again…he kept trying to shake them off, but the girls were persistent and seemed to have endless stamina.

And, of course, he had to end up running into a dead end alley. 'Great…' he could hear the mob of squealing girls come closer, all of them crazily calling his name like he was some divine entity.

Seeing no other alternative, he leaned against the wall of the alley and activated his sand shield, hoping to the heavens that it would help camouflage him. They were coming closer…closer…had they seen him? 'Please Kami, don't let them find me…'

"Where did he go?", asked one of the girls, whose voice Gaara recognized as Matsuri's, his former student.

"I saw him turning towards that alley over there!!", said another girl.

'Damn, they saw me…', Gaara thought, his heart pumping in his chest.

"He went through there, ladies.", said a male voice.

"What?…are you sure?" asked Matsuri.

"Yes, I am sure. Go get him!"

"Thanks, kid!" The girls ran off in another direction and soon he stopped hearing them. He then heard footsteps approaching him.

"You can come out now, they are gone.", he heard the same male voice say. He poked a small hole in the sand shield and peeked outside. A blur of green with a big shiny smile, a pair of bushy brows, black hair in a bowl cut, and big obsidian eyes, was looking at him…

"Lee…", Gaara said in a surprised tone, de-activating his sand shield.

Rock Lee. The boy who he had almost killed, and who ended up becoming one of his best and closest friends. After the fight with that weird guy Kimimaro, Lee and Gaara had become friends, and now they wrote letters to each other frequently. Gaara felt that Lee was one of the few people with which he felt he could speak freely and truly open up his feelings to. He knew that Lee didn't judge him or think he was a freak, being often treated like a freak himself. Lee's letters were often quite lengthy and full of details, but Gaara enjoyed receiving mail from the thick-browed boy. Actually, more than enjoying them, there were times when he yearned for Lee's letters, either because they had any kind of answer to his own letters, carried any special news, or were just about random conversation topics. Gaara loved the way those word-filled sheets of paper reminded him of Lee's sincerity, his kindness and his energy, and he could almost imagine Lee's face and his big round eyes while writing each word. Unbeknownst to his siblings (or to anyone for that matter) Gaara kept all of those letters safe inside the bottom drawer on his nightstand.

"Good afternoon, Gaara-kun! Are you okay, did they harm you?" Lee said, searching for any bruises on the Kazekage.

"N-no, no, they didn't touch me…Lee…what are you doing here?"

"Did no one tell you I was coming?" He tilted his head to the side.

"No, I don't think so…wait, you're the messenger from Konoha the elders were talking about?"

"Yes, that is correct. I came to bring a message from Tsunade-sama, but they told me you had left your office early, so I was just taking a walk around the village."

"Oh…I never thought you'd be sent, I thought they'd send a Chuunin or something."

"Well, actually I asked Hokage-sama to let me come on this mission. I have been wanting to visit for some time, and given the chance, I thought it would be a good way to…you know, wish you a happy birthday…so, happy birthday!" Lee said, smiling his shiny smile.

"T-thank you, Lee…" Gaara answered with a slight tinge of pink on his cheeks. Lee had taken a three-day journey just to visit _him_?

"So, how are you doing, Gaara-kun? How has your day been so far?"

"Weird."

"How so?"

"I must be cursed or something, cause it looks like everything's against me today. First the downpour from this morning…"

"Yeah, I figured it was not normal to rain like that in the desert…"

"And then lots of other things, and now this. Almost being smothered to death by a swarm of hormonal, over-excited, scary females…"

"My, what a horrible day you have had, Gaara-kun…but you must not let yourself be brought down by it, for you have the Wonderful Power of Youth within you!" Lee did the nice guy pose and his teeth sparkled.

"Lee, don't do that, it's creepy…"

"Oh…okay, sorry." Lee said sheepishly, stopping his energetic display. "Say, Gaara-kun, do you have any plans for the rest of the day?"

"No…I was just going to go buy something to eat, since my dinner got burnt."

"Oh, I see…well, in that case, would you like to have dinner with me?"

"Have dinner with you?…I- "

"I-I mean, only if you want to, of course…it was just a suggestion, and- "

"I'd like that", said Gaara with a small smile. "I haven't got anything to do anyways, so why not?"

"YOSH! I'm glad you like the idea, Gaara-kun! You pick the place where you want to eat, and it's my treat! Come on!" Lee put his arm around Gaara's shoulders and led him out of the alley, onto the street.

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** So there you have it, folks, Lee has arrived at last!! *****cheers***

**This time I'll definitely publish the next chapter sooner, if not you can hang me upside down from the top of a cliff XD  
**

**Please R&R and tell me your opinion, every time you do my cactus soars with joy!**


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